Sketches by Boz, Illustrative of Every-Day Life and Every-Day PeopleDickens, Charles
General
Sketches by Boz, Illustrative of Every-Day Life and Every-Day People
Dickens, Charles
London (England) -- Social life and customs -- 19th century; London (England) -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction
The heat is intense this afternoon, and the people, of whom there are
additional parties arriving every moment, look as warm as the tables
which have been recently painted, and have the appearance of being
red-hot. What a dust and noise! Men and women—boys and
girls—sweethearts and married people—babies in arms, and children in
chaises—pipes and shrimps—cigars and periwinkles—tea and tobacco.
Gentlemen, in alarming waistcoats, and steel watch-guards, promenading
about, three abreast, with surprising dignity (or as the gentleman in
the next box facetiously observes, ‘cutting it uncommon fat!’)—ladies,
with great, long, white pocket-handkerchiefs like small table-cloths,
in their hands, chasing one another on the grass in the most playful
and interesting manner, with the view of attracting the attention of
the aforesaid gentlemen—husbands in perspective ordering bottles of
ginger-beer for the objects of their affections, with a lavish
disregard of expense; and the said objects washing down huge quantities
of ‘shrimps’ and ‘winkles,’ with an equal disregard of their own bodily
health and subsequent comfort—boys, with great silk hats just balanced
on the top of their heads, smoking cigars, and trying to look as if
they liked them—gentlemen in pink shirts and blue waistcoats,
occasionally upsetting either themselves, or somebody else, with their
own canes.
Some of the finery of these people provokes a smile, but they are all
clean, and happy, and disposed to be good-natured and sociable. Those
two motherly-looking women in the smart pelisses, who are chatting so
confidentially, inserting a ‘ma’am’ at every fourth word, scraped an
acquaintance about a quarter of an hour ago: it originated in
admiration of the little boy who belongs to one of them—that diminutive
specimen of mortality in the three-cornered pink satin hat with black
feathers. The two men in the blue coats and drab trousers, who are
walking up and down, smoking their pipes, are their husbands. The party
in the opposite box are a pretty fair specimen of the generality of the
visitors. These are the father and mother, and old grandmother: a young
man and woman, and an individual addressed by the euphonious title of
‘Uncle Bill,’ who is evidently the wit of the party. They have some
half-dozen children with them, but it is scarcely necessary to notice
the fact, for that is a matter of course here. Every woman in ‘the
gardens,’ who has been married for any length of time, must have had
twins on two or three occasions; it is impossible to account for the
extent of juvenile population in any other way.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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